As shelter closes, future is discussed

'One-stop center' providing services for homeless could be developed

EASTER FEAST

The San Diego Rescue Mission expects to serve 1,500 homeless men, women and children today
at its annual Easter Community Outreach Meal.

Where: 120 Elm St., between
First and Second avenues.

When: 2 to 5 p.m.

San Diego 
Terry Brinker credits the city's winter homeless shelter with saving his life.

After months of looking for work and coming up empty, the unemployed welder was forced to bunk down in the cavernous tent that was home for 230 adults each night in the East Village.

About three weeks ago, Brinker woke one morning to find that all of the toes on his right foot had turned black, a complication of diabetes. Shelter workers rushed him to the hospital, where his toes were amputated.

“It could have been a lot worse. It could have been my whole leg,” Brinker said this week as he sat in a wheelchair, his right foot swathed in bandages and covered by a black sock. “I'm so grateful for this shelter. The people who work here bend over backwards for you.”

The shelter closed Wednesday after four months of operation, with most people returning to the streets. Brinker was among the lucky few heading for lodging in the Hotel Metro downtown.

But at the same time the winter-shelter program wound down, the city began inviting interested social-services agencies to submit proposals that could provide an open shelter door for the city's homeless population year-round.

Homeless-services providers are being asked to develop and submit plans to the city for a “one-stop center” that would evaluate homeless people's needs, provide appropriate services and obtain housing – either at the center or elsewhere.

The concept was developed by the City Council's Permanent Homeless Facility Task Force, a coalition of elected city officials and residents that met for more than a year. The most responsive proposals will be sent to the City Council in June for consideration.

The first center would be established downtown, where many sidewalks are lined with people in tents and bedrolls at night.

“We have an acute homeless problem downtown – I recognize that,” said Councilman Kevin Faulconer, the task force's chairman, whose district includes the city's core. “Our goal is to create a model that works for downtown that can be replicated elsewhere in the city.”

Ultimately, Faulconer wants to see permanent housing and services provided to homeless people as a way of getting them off the streets – and away from downtown businesses and condominiums.

Faulconer also wants additional housing as an antidote to a class-action lawsuit settled in 2007 in which the city agreed to stop ticketing homeless people for sleeping on the streets. The councilman said that if enough shelter beds are provided, the city will be able to make a case in court to resume enforcement.

The obvious roadblock to the one-stop-center plan is finding a location that's supported by neighbors and the City Council. Proposals from service providers will include sites, and Faulconer said he's optimistic that at least one will be accepted.

Meanwhile, the street population in San Diego swelled this week as the city's shelter program closed. In addition to the 230 people discharged Wednesday from the East Village facility, 150 homeless male veterans were sent packing Thursday when a city-funded tent shelter for them in the Midway District shut down.

“This year, there were more first-time homeless individuals than ever before,” said Andre Simpson, a vice president of the Veterans Village of San Diego, which operates the shelter under a city contract. “Participants were younger and we were seeing them, not for substance abuse or mental health issues, but because of the economy.”

During the four months the veterans shelter was open, 370 individuals stayed there for at least one night. At the East Village shelter, more than 800 people bedded down at least once, including six pregnant women.

Bob McElroy, whose Alpha Project social-services agency operated the East Village facility, said 73 percent of the shelter residents reported having either a physical or mental disability, sometimes both.

“Most of these people have Social Security checks. They've worked their whole lives,” McElroy said. “But now that they've torn down most of the single-room-occupancy hotels downtown, there's not many places for them to go.

“They're living in a homeless shelter from no fault of their own. Their only sin is that they're poor.”

On any given night, about 7,600 people are homeless in San Diego County, excluding farmworkers and day laborers, according to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. About 4,100 people are homeless in the city of San Diego.

This winter, the city spent about $700,000 to provide lodging for some of them at the adult shelter and the veterans shelter and through a hotel-motel voucher program for families. It also operated a mobile clinic.

The shelter program, while temporary, was a source of stability and an opportunity to save money for many who stayed there.

“It really helped you to get your head together and to find out the right direction you want to go on,” said Steven Bernard, 56, a longtime traveling carnival worker who's unemployed and lived for three months at the East Village shelter.

Manuel “Chief” Sablan, 69, said he enjoyed the breather but doesn't fear returning to the streets, where he has lived since 1996. Sablan, a former crew member on tankers and ships, is disabled and uses a wheelchair.

He said living on the streets has provided him with knowledge of a slice of life that most people don't understand.

“A lot of people don't have my opportunity. I'm placed here for a reason,” Sablan said. “A billionaire would never know what I'm enjoying or encountering.”